The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus that performs an image forming process on a sheet and, in particular, to an image forming apparatus having a cooling air channel that cools the interior of the apparatus.
An image forming apparatus has various components, members, and devices that include such components or members, which act as heat sources. Examples of thereof include a power substrate mounted with a power semiconductor element and a fixing device that performs a fixing process on a sheet onto which a toner image has been transferred. In order to discharge heat generated by these heat source devices to the outside, the image forming apparatus is provided with a air duct.
Generally, a fan is attached to an end of the aforementioned duct in order to promote heat discharge. By activating the fan, an airflow is generated within the duct and warm air inside the apparatus is discharged to the outside by the airflow. Conventionally, an image forming apparatus is known which divides an airflow caused by an intake operation of the fan into a flow in a direction of a fixing section and a flow in a direction of a power-supply unit.
In the conventional art described above, a heat source device such as the power-supply unit and a control substrate is arranged approximately horizontally inside a main body of the apparatus and a fan is arranged adjacent to a heat source device. When various substrates are arranged approximately horizontally in an internal space of the apparatus main body in this manner, a space in a height direction of the apparatus main body becomes individually occupied. In addition, since arranging a fan arranged adjacent to a heat source device limits an arrangement space of the fan, a small-size fan tends to be selected. In this case, there is a problem in that rotating a small-size fan at high speed in order to generate an airflow results in generating noise.
The present disclosure has been made in consideration of the problem described above and an object of the present disclosure is to reduce noise caused by a fan that generates an airflow inside an apparatus.